Entrepreneur Essentials – How to Raise Venture Capital Anywhere

A round-up of best global resources on fundraising pitching and strategy

Whether you’re fundraising for the first time or it’s a follow-on round, whether the amount is 50 lakhs, 3 crores, 12 crores or more, navigating the choppy waters of fundraising (investors’ basic and burning questions) is always a challenge, even for a repeat offender.

In our first Entrepreneur Essentials packet, we bring to you a well-rounded, curated list of quality resources to help you craft a well-designed investor pitch, an extremely strong narrative, and a clear fundraising strategy.

Covering The Basics

Over the last 4 years, we, at Unitus Ventures (formerly Unitus Seed Fund) have evaluated more than 3,000 startups and invested in 23 companies – less than 1%. According to Dave Richards and Will Poole, co-Founders of Unitus Ventures (formerly Unitus Seed Fund), “A Venture Capitalist invests in people, not just ideas. We want startups to explain how they are “all in” for persevering to develop the business – whatever it takes.” They have combined a wealth of learnings, in these 3 easy-to-read listicles, which are a great starting point to get Founders thinking –

Learnings From Our Speed2Seed Program

In 2015, we launched the Speed2Seed Program to support incubators and accelerators as they work with India’s rising entrepreneurs get on the right track of building the foundations of strong, investable startups. As part of the program, we developed ‘Pitch Perfect‘, to enable entrepreneurs pitching for the first time, understand and master different pitches. How to get that crucial pitch, right? Read our Pitch Perfect >

Can a startup raise $7.4 million (~ INR 50 Crore) in two weeks of joining a program called, ‘Pitch Assist’? Well, yes! Buddybuild, a mobile iteration platform for iOS and Android did. US-based First Round Capital’s Pitch Assist is a 4 – 6 week bootcamp that shares the fundraising wisdom of its 300+ portfolio companies, which have raised over 1,000 rounds and $18 billion in follow-on funding. The Fundraising Wisdom that helped raise $18B in Follow-On Capital >

Are You The Right Founder?

When a 14-minute TED talk, has been viewed over 900, 000 times, it’s not worth a miss.

A full-proof investor pitch and business strategy are great conversation starters. But as David Rose, ‘The Pitch Coach’ emphasizes, to strike a fruitful deal, the Founder MUST evoke characteristics such as leadership, commitment, realism and more. Remember, the single most important that the VC is going to be investing in is YOU. Watch the full video >

Beyond The Perfect Pitch Deck

“A pitch meeting should have a natural cadence, like a screenplay” and this is where storytelling becomes a crucial component. In this feature, Oren Jacob utilizes his two decades of experience at Pixar, to help founders take their fundraising pitch from mediocre to memorable, all with storytelling. Take your fundraising pitch from Mediocre to Memorable >

Avoiding Mistakes

In the fevered pitch of deal making, even the best entrepreneurs are likely to overlook some basics, costing them their chances at success. Christopher Mirabile compiles a checklist of basic mistakes to avoid while managing your audience, material and self, which he has encountered in his journey of making over 60 investments. 25 Mistakes To Avoid When Pitching Investors >

Diving Into The Winner’s mindset

“At the time of the Series B financing, LinkedIn had spent its $4 million from Series A building a network that was much smaller than Friendster and MySpace.” Reid Hoffman, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of LinkedIn shares the company’s Series B deck taking his readers through every slide, detailing the context and advice simultaneously, helping entrepreneurs approach the pitch process effectively. See LinkedIn’s Series B Pitch deck to Greylock >